Three founding fathers of experimental music join forces to conjure an unholy serenade for a society on the verge of collapse on Process and Reality, an hourlong whirlwind of pessimistic prophecy transformed into a heady monolith of sound.

Boundary-stretching guitarist Richard Pinhas, founder of the influential French electronic-rock band Heldon, teams with two icons of the Japanese avant-garde  drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, mastermind of warped-prog legends Ruins, Koenjihyakkei and Korekyojinn, and Masami Akita, a.k.a. noise guru Merzbow  to summon a brutally honest, politically potent, sonically tumultuous reflection of the last gasps of the industrial age.

Process and Reality marks the first recorded convergence of these three avant-rock giants, though Pinhas has recorded with both Yoshida and Merzbow in the past and all three have toured extensively together in Japan. The album, recorded in Tokyo during a recent high-profile tour, captures the fevered intensity and violently textured depth of the trio’s collaborative improvisations.

Pinhas' aggressive, combustible music has always been honed to a keen edge by its philosophical bent. Process and Reality takes its name from an influential 1929 book by English mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, which posits reality as a continual process of becoming. That’s an apt summation of the music made by Pinhas, Yoshida and Akita, which seethes and roils in a constant state of both turbulent flux and visceral realization. The guitarist says of his collaborators, “They explore 100% of their possibility. We have the same kind of spirit.”

The bleak outlook embodied by the music on Process and Reality is stunningly pictured in cover art worthy of a cyberpunk novel, rendering an oil tanker as a surrogate for the decaying post-industrial future. It was created by Patrick Jelin, the gifted designer also responsible for the covers for classic Heldon albums Interface (1977) and Stand By (1979), as well as Pinhas’ 1979 solo effort Iceland.

If that’s all too downbeat for an evening’s listening, Pinhas also sees the album as a celebration of his cherished friendship with these Japanese artists. “Japan is the best scene in the world,” he asserts, and while he foresees a radical change in his sound approaching in 2017, he continues that, “Always I will work with my forever friends.”

One day a troubled monk approached Joshu, a renowned Chinese Zen master, intending to ask him for guidance. A dog walked by and the monk asked Joshu, "Has that dog a Buddha Nature or not?" The monk had barely completed his question when Joshu shouted: "Mu!"

Mu is often translated as “nothingness,” but as the response in Zen’s most famous koan, the gesture speaks to a truth deeper than rational dualistic thinking can obtaintherefore also resonating with the creative mindset accompanying the purest forms of musical improvisation.

The music created by French guitar iconoclast and electronic music pioneer Richard Pinhas and insistently inventive San Francisco Bay Area guitarist Barry Cleveland on Mu originated in just such a way, arising seemingly from “nothingness.” The two had contemplated performing as well as recording together for several years before their stars finally aligned, and they played several Bay Area shows during the same period that Mu was recorded.

Unfettered by genre conventions, Mu is a mesmerizing combination of entirely improvised music and Cleveland’s post-production compositional development. The four long pieces unfurl as a confluence of overlapping musical currents informed by art rock, ambient, electronic, avant-garde jazz, and various “world” music inflections. Joined by two longtime Cleveland collaboratorselectric bass innovator Michael Manring and Brazilian-born drum master Celso Alberti  these expansive and timeless soundscapes will have definite appeal to fans of artists like Jon Hassell, Arve Henriksen, Nils Petter Molvær, Bill Laswell, David Torn, Brian Eno, David Sylvian and David Bowie.

Pinhas’ distinctive musical aesthetic is facilitated by his Metatronic live-looping and effects system that enables him to create an astonishing variety of tones and textures and layer them into continually changing stream-of-consciousness soundscapes. His approach on Mu was especially dynamic. “Besides opening up fresh sonic horizons himself, Richard did an impressive job of responding to the rapid shifts in tempo, tonality, and intensity of the quartet, which is far from easy when using a looping system such as his,” explains Cleveland. “His performance on ‘I Wish I Could Talk In Technicolor,’ in particular, may be the most dynamic and nuanced I’ve heard from him yet.”

Cleveland’s aesthetic is equally sui generis. In addition to playing guitar in the conventional manner he plays with a bow, a bowhammer, an Ebow, and other devices, as well as using sophisticated electronics and looping to access intriguing new aural realms. On Mu, he also played Moog Guitar, sitar guitar, Vocalizer 1000 woodwind synth, M-Tron, zither, kalimba, gong, and incidental percussion.

“Hyperbassist” Michael Manring’s mind-blowing virtuosity is equaled only by the richness of feeling expressed in his playing. He and drummer/percussionist Celso Alberti, a master of multiple rhythmic traditions, share a near-psychic connection that enlivens their truly uncanny interactions.

In bringing together this singular quartet, Cleveland and Pinhas take another bold step with Mu. Given their long histories of innovation and experimentation it shouldn’t be surprising to find them venturing into the unknown. But there’s still something inspiring about witnessing veteran artists willing to follow a thread of inspiration into the void, only to emerge with new revelations. “In many ways,” says Cleveland, “this album represents the culmination of concepts and techniques I’ve been developing my entire life.”

Cuneiform Records is proud to announce the first-ever vinyl reissue of Chronolyse, the masterwork of 1970s analogue electronics that French electronic musician and guitarist Richard Pinhas created in tribute to Frank Herbert's sci-fi classic, Dune. This special reissue, pressed on 180 gram white vinyl and featuring the original album artwork, celebrates Chronolyse's conception nearly 40 years ago as well as the 50th anniversary of Dune, the first volume of which was published in 1965.

Back in 1974, Pinhas received his PhD in Philosophy from the Sorbonne, where he had studied with French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and written his dissertation, ''Science-Fiction, Inconscient et Autres Machins'', on the intersections of time, time manipulation, science fiction and analogue electronic music. That same year he founded Heldon. a band that fused his searing guitar with experimental electronics to revolutionize rock music in France. By 1976 Heldon had released several albums on Pinhas' Disjuncta label (one of France's first independent labels), and began working on a new album, Interface. Simultaneous with the Interface sessions, Pinhas immersed himself in a highly personal and heartfelt solo project. He had been deeply affected by Frank Herbert's Dune novels and the complete universe that they contained, and wanted to dedicate a full album to Dune. Acquiring a Moog P3 and a new Polymoog to accompany two Revox A700s he had installed in his home Heldon Studio, Pinhas now had the perfect analogue electronic arsenal to weave his own sonic and philosophical universe in response to Dune's.

Between January and June 1976, he recorded his Dune tribute on Moog and Polymoog direct to tape; he recalls that the music flowed to him easily, ''like a dream''. He used his ''Big MOOG P3'' and the two Revox (one for recording, one for a delay) to record side A of the album, which included 7 tracks dedicated to ''Variations Sur Le Theme des Bene Gesserit'' and one track named after ''Duncan Idaho''. For side B, he used his Polymoog and the two Revox to record a ''Tronix'' base for a single, lengthy track, ''Paul Atreïdes''. Originally, he had thought to do an all-Moog album. But instead, he went into the Davout Studio with his guitar and his Heldon colleagues, Didier Batard (drums) and François Auger (bass) to record their instruments over the Polymoog track. All the track names derived from Dune. ''Bene Gesserit'' is a name of the race of the woman who has ESP. ''Duncan Idaho'' is a military aide of the clan of Atreides; the name also was similar to that of one of Richard's sons, Duncan, who was then a little more than one year old. ''Paul Atreides'' is a boy who corresponds to the hero of the story. But Pinhas did not want his album to be a too ''commercial'' Dune tribute, and thus chose his album's name, Chronolyse, from a work by French science fiction novelist, Michel Jeury, whose writings dealt with time manipulations.

Chronolyse came out on vinyl in 1978, released by Cobra only in France. Although it was his first solo recording, it was his second solo album release, as Rhizosphere had come out the year before. As completed, it included one side of solo, live Moog synthesizer pieces, notable for their wide, stereo field and unique sound - a product of the weeks he spent setting up and programming the sounds on his huge Moog P3 modular synthesizer. The other side was a lengthy, stormy, drone-filled, epi of mellotrons (Polymoog), electronics, guitar, bass and drums by his Heldon colleagues. In Chronolyse, Pinhas wove his separate worlds of music, philosophy, science fiction and literature, physical reality and family life into a single sonic and philosophical universe.

"...two pioneers of fringe music, with the rapport of the two as the driving force behind this album" - Something Else!

Richard Pinhas, the founder of 70s legends Heldon, is one of France's best known experimental musicians and is a key figure in development of rock music fusing with electronic music.

Yoshida Tatsuya is one of the most important musicians of the Japanese experimental music scene for the last 35 years, spearheading at least a half dozen of that country's most important groups, including Ruins, Koenji Hyakkei and Korekyojinn.

For their first-ever recorded meeting, Richard's electronics and guitar merges with the percussion mastery of Yoshida for a powerful bout of musical give and take.

"Nearly four decades into a career spent shattering boundaries, the Parisian experimentalist [offers] fractured, distortion-soaked soundtracks." -Time Out

Richard Pinhas is one of the most uncompromising artists on the international rock scene, having remained constantly innovative and true to his personal artistic vision for 40 years.

Oren Ambarchi is a guitarist, drummer and sound-artist who has recorded with Sunn O))), Keiji Haino and Jim O'Rourke.

Somewhat surprisingly, the music on 'Tikkun' comes across as a very tasty cross between the heavy synth-driven beats of classic Heldon and the much more noisier aspects of Pinhas' work over the last decade.

This CD/DVD set features a new studio CD and a DVD of a recent live performance.

"Richard Pinhas' continuing transformation...to touchstone for a next generation of abstract noisemakers continues..." – All Music Guide

"...a career spent shattering boundaries..." – Time Out Chicago

Desolation Row finds things coming full-circle for guitarist/electronics pioneer, Richard Pinhas. In a career spanning more than 40 years, pathfinder Pinhas has remained continually innovative, pioneering groundbreaking developments in electronic rock and industrial music and influencing generations of musicians. In a major recent creative surge, he has released numerous recordings over the past several years in collaboration with noise and experimental musicians, breaking further sonic ground. Desolation Row finds Pinhas collaborating with those he has directly or indirectly inspired and influenced, with the results in a class by themselves.

On the album, he is in the company of some of Europe’s cutting-edge performers in the frequently-overlapping spheres of free improvisation, jazz, progressive rock and noise — Oren Ambarchi, Lasse Marhaug, Etienne Jaumet, Noel Akchote, Eric Borelva, and his son, Duncan Nilsson — engaging in a series of six distinct works which stimulate and push all concerned through and beyond their comfort zones. This is a work that stands both with and apart from the respective oeuvres of its principals. The continually evolving Pinhas reaches ever newer artistic vistas – and draws attention to Europe’s sociological, political, and economic turmoil on Desolation Row.

Desolation Row contains some of the elements we know and love from Pinhas—dense, subtly shifting banks of sonic bliss; sustained guitar tones, textures alternately dreamlike and nightmarish, and well-nigh elemental, pulsating rhythms. Far from being an "elder statesman," this shows that Richard Pinhas is still in the thick of things, continually reinventing his musical conceptions and recognizing no conventional constraints.

In Metal/Crystal, French experimental guitarist and electronic musician Richard Pinhas summons the assistance of noise artists Merzbow (Masami Akita) from Japan and Wolf Eyes from USA to weave a spellbinding aural web that spans 2 CDs.Over the years, many artists in the 'noise arena' have expressed interest in his pioneering use of synthesizers and electronics in rock and contemporary music. Pinhas has likewise been intrigued by various areas of the ‘noise’ scene and Metal/Crystal, recorded "during these two worst years of my life" reflects these influences strongly. Metal/Crystal also intertwines some of the most radical electro-acoustic sonic innovations to emerge from three different continents: Europe, Asia and North America.

Pinhas has been ceaselessly innovative in a career spanning more than 30 years, and recently has been exploring areas of the international ‘noise’ scene. His newest release shows him working with two of that scene’s highest profile artists; Merzbow and Wolf Eyes are considered to be the premier ‘noise artists’ of their respective countries. Metal/Crystal is Pinhas’ second collaboration with Merzbow, the originator of Japanese noise music. It is Pinhas’ first release with Michigan's Wolf Eyes, whom he’s worked with since 2007. In addition to Merzbow and Wolf Eyes, Metal/Crystal features several of Pinhas’ longtime collaborators: Antoine Paganotti (drums), Didier Batard (bass), Patrick Gauthier (mini-Moog) (all ex members of Heldon and/or Magma); Jerome Schmidt (electronics), whom Pinhas has recorded and toured extensively with for 2 decades; and his son Duncan Pinhas (electronics), who also helped mix the album with Laurent Peyron and Francis Gernet.

The album’s artwork, by Yann Legendre and Joy Burke, features intricate, back-and-white cartoon-like drawings, with images hidden inside larger forms. The 6 lengthy tracks on Metal/Crystal features some of Pinhas’ most melodic guitar riffs in recent years, as well as his ‘noisiest’ sonic abstractions ever.

"We take it for granted today, but not too long ago, integrating electronics into a rock setting was something exotic and strange..... Heldon and Richard Pinhas are considered building blocks for whole schools of experimental rock music, and one of the few who rarely fail to deliver on the hype." – Pitchfork Media

"Richard Pinhas demonstrates that he is capable of contstructing some of the most formidable but exhilharating sonic edifices ever heard by mortal ears." – Bill Tilland, All Music Guide

Metatron is over 2 hours of spacey and flowing music that isn't afraid to rock out completely as well, by French electronic rock pioneer Richard Pinhas (on guitar and electronics), with Jerome Schmidt on laptop, drummer Antoine Paganotti (Magma) and ex-Heldon members Didier Batard (bass), Patrick Gauthier (minimoog) and Alain Renaud (guitar), as well as Chuck Oken, Jr. (Djam Karet) on synths and Philipe Simon on violin on one track each. While a lot of this is definitely comparable to Tranzition, his great last album, there really is a lot more rock involved this time around, as there are drums on the great majority of tracks. In addition to all the great music, there is a QuickTime video with footage from Richard and Jerome's 2004 North American tour.

"Among collectors of electronic music, some names have become legendary and are present in every search list. These names include Richard Pnhas, the leader of the French cult group Heldon." – Audion

Composer, guitarist and electronics innovator Richard Pinhas is recognized as one of France's major experimental musicians. A pivotal figure in the international development of electronic rock music, Pinhas' stature in France is analogous to Tangerine Dream's in Germany: the father figure of an entire musical movement. The pioneering, aggressive music produced by his band Heldon during the 1970s, fusing electronics, guitar and rock, heralded the industrial and techno to come and remains today vital and unsurpassed. On Tranzition, Pinhas weaves beautiful, spacey, processed guitar tapestries, with added color from laptop, violin and the drumming of Antoine Paganotti of Magma. The voice of the late author Philip K. Dick can be heard on "Moumoune girl", from a 1977 tape that he gave Pinhas. The BBC described his recent guitar music as "Music that is in flux and stasis at the same time, with an almost sculptural presence, stuffed with overtones and rich textures." Tranzition is a multifaceted and richly jeweled work in which cause and effect, acoustics and electronics, taped sound and live playing change roles and even realities.

"...a sporadic but constant thread in Pinhas’ music has been his experimentation with guitar feedback, loops and effects boxes, even in the early days of Heldon, as he tried to perfect his own version of Frippertronics. Well, it has been a long time coming, but Event and Repetitions may well signal the full realization of Pinhas’ long-time vision. The drifting, hypnotic patterns of the five pieces on this CD? have a shimmering beauty and depth that seems to suggest a destination at the end of a long journey – and perhaps the beginning of a new journey. Although the CD cover proclaims that all tracks were performed live on guitar direct to digital recorder, many of the background drones and even melody lines have such long sustains that they sound as if they are being played on a huge cathedral organ rather than an electric guitar. The mastery of technology here is not only impressive – but also completely organic. Like all art that comes from the deeper parts of the psyche, Event and Repetitions really transcends classification." – Bill Tilland, All Music Guide

Event and Repetitions, his first solo album in over 5 years, is over 75' of music performed live in his studio with just guitar and processing systems. The music is rich in depth, detail and texture.

The Schizotrope project was born out of a desire to honor Richard's friend, the noted philosopher Gilles Deleuze, who died in 1995. In 1998, Pinhas teamed up with French 'cyber-punk' author Maurice Dantec and Schizotrope came to North America in March 1999 for a series of shows. This album was compiled from tapes of these shows.

Featuring Dantec reading from Deleuze’ works, accompanied by Pinhas playing guitar, with sound electronically modulated in real-time by various processors, this is a musically innovative, emotionally moving, and conceptually rich fusion of those disciplines closest to Pinhas’ heart.

"Fans of Kraftwerk and Neu! owe it to themselves to check out this similarly far-sighted stuff...exciting guitar and Moog noodle-o-rama!" – C.M.J.

Composer, guitarist & electronics innovator Richard Pinhas is recognized as one of France's major experimental musicians & is a pivotal figure in the development of electronic rock. This was Heldon's fifth, & many people's favorite, this was called "the apex of the punk-electronic sound - a masterpiece". by Forced Exposure. Includes a guest slot by Magma monster bassist Janick Top and two live bonus tracks! Probably their closest, along with Stand By, to a heavy zeuhl sound with massive electronics added!

"...accessible and musically adventurous. This is Pinhas' first solo album, coupled with 40 minutes of live performance with Heldon regulars. Rhizosphere features Pinhas soloing over shifting electronic-rhythmic foundations. The live set focuses more on his diabolical guitar work." – Progression

Rhizosphere, originally released in 1976, was Pinhas' first solo album. It consists of four solo pieces for synthesizer, plus a extended fifth synthesizer piece which is a duet with Heldon drummer Francois Auguer. I have always found it to be a mesmerizing work, on par with its influences of Terry Riley and Philip Glass, but completely different from them due to the usage of only Moog and ARP synthesizers. For this CD release, an additional 38' was added of a previously unheard, professionally recorded 1982 concert by the Richard Pinhas Band, a short-lived ensemble who were Heldon II in all but name and who featured a great cast who had all previously played in Magma: Clement Bailly (drums), Patrick Gauthier (synthesizer), Bernard Paganotti (bass) and Richard on electronics, synthesizers and guitar. Unlike the trance/hypnotic style of Rhizosphere, this is a pretty mighty, ballsy blast of rock + electronics.

"...widely considered to be one of the most experimental of the Heldon catalog, as Pinhas dazzles the ear with monstrous assaults of mellotron, the big Moog, electric guitars and shuddering bass that projects images of a sort of music Stockhausen might have done had he gigged with a rock band...indispensable." – i/e

Agneta Nilsson was their fourth album and features Patrick Gauthier, Gerard Prevost, Coco Roussel, Michael Ettori and Alain Bellaiche and ranges from slow building mellotron/electronic drones, to brain searing synth/guitar sonic attacks.

"Heldon's last was album was also their best. Stand By stood on an imaginary crossroad between Robert Fripp, Magma and Tangerine Dream." – Scented Gardens of the Mind

Stand By is the seventh and final album by Heldon, the quintessential progressive French electronic rock band.

Originally released on Egg in 1979, this features the classic Heldon line-up of Richard Pinhas-guitar and electronics, Patric Gauthier-Moog synthesizer and electronics, Didier Batard-bass, François Auger-drums and guests, including Klaus Blasquiz of Magma!

Composer, guitarist & electronics innovator Richard Pinhas is recognized as one of France's major experimental musicians & is a pivotal figure in the development of electronic rock. This combines their 1st & 3rd albums (3 lps) onto 2 CDs. Some of their most primitive, yet compelling work; some of it if by just Richard on early synthesizers and electric guitars with lots of fuzz doing big sonic freakouts, while other tracks add familiar names like George Grunblatt-VCS3 synth, mellotron and guitar, Pattrick Gauthier-VCS3 and ARP synths, Jean-My Truong-drums, Coco Roussel-drums, Gilbert Artman-drums, Ariel Kalma-harmonium and more!

"Iceland, from 1979, was Pinhas's third solo release (and considered by many to be his best). It was a slower, more classical recording, with a capacity of hypnotize the listener without their knowledge." – Alternative Press

"Pinhas' song and CD titles, and even cover art, both as a solo artist and with Heldon indicate the strong influence of science fiction authors and titles. Pinhas has a strongly visual and literary imagination and while this recording is not exactly thematic, and not exactly science fiction either, it is inspired by a vision of ancient Northern kingdoms and rulers, with song titles such as "Iceland," "The Last Kings of Thule" and "Greenland." At its best, Iceland does in fact convey an icy desolate beauty with the three-part title piece perhaps most evocative. Here, Pinhas uses long, moody synthesizer lines in a manner that would be adopted and extended by ambient synthesizer artists such as Steve Roach four or five years later..." – Bill Tilland, All Music Guide

Iceland was Richard's first album after the dissolution of Heldon and it's an mostly solo work (Francois Auger (drums) and Jean-Philippe Goude (mini-moog) join him on one track) that conjures up impressions of icy, pristine landscapes. Includes a previously unreleased 25' track.

"If there was ever a band that epitomized perhaps the ultimate union of guitars with electronics, Heldon's holy blaze burns the brightest." – i/e

Interface is the sixth album by Heldon, the quintessential progressive French electronic rock band. Originally released on Cobra in 1977, this features the classic Heldon line-up of Richard Pinhas-guitar and electronics, Patrick Gauthier-Moog synthesizer and electronics and François Auger-drums and electronics.

This was one of Heldon's heaviest albums, featuring their most intense and relentless electronic fusillades. This includes two bonus live tracks. This is probably my personal favorite of all their albums and a great place to start.

DWW was his final album from his initial period of work in the 70's/80's, but which was unreleased until the early 1990's.

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ALLEZ TEIA

RUNE 37

Allez Teia, originally released in 1975, was Heldon's second album. It is rightly considered an early, trance-inducing, electronic masterpiece. It is the only album in the Heldon cannon to feature acoustic guitar. Overall, I'd say that this is the most trippy and spacey Heldon material, it basically begs for you to break out the bong! It features the trademark 70s Heldon/Pinhas instrumental sound: waves of fuzz-tone, post Frippian guitars, ARP and VCS3 synthesizers, tape loops and mellotron, all building towards a monstrously delirious denouement. A absolutely stone(d) classic of the progressive rock scene of the 70s – searing, instrumental spacemusic, bridging electronics and psychedelic guitar in a legendary fashion.

Originally first reissued (by us) on CD in 1992 and out of print for several years, this is reissued here in newly upgraded packaging that closely approximates the original, collectable album release.

During a fairly incredible 7 year run that began in the mid 1970s, Richard Pinhas released a large string of influencial albums; 7 by Heldon and 5 under his own name, all of which attempted in one way or another to meld (avant-garde) rock music with electronics. L'Ethique was his final release of that 12, recorded in 1981 and originally released in 1982. It was his final solo album before his musical retirement throughout the 1980s and it's one of his great 'classic period' works.

It also features the only studio recordings by the short-lived Richard Pinhas Band. This group featured a great cast of musicians who had all previously played in Magma: Clement Bailly (drums), Patrick Gauthier (synthesizer) (also of Heldon and Weidorje), Bernard Paganotti (bass) (also of Weidorje) and Richard on electronics, synthesizers and guitar.

L'Ethique has been unavailable on CD for several years and with the huge interest in analog electronics and the early days of synthesis, Richard's career in general and the music of Magma, it was definitely time to make this available again.

Out of print for the last 5 years, East/West was Richard’s s fourth solo album, which was originally released in 1980. This album has Richard embracing the new, computer-driven electronic technology, while still using some of his old gear and is one of Richard's personal favorites of his 70's and 80's work.

This reprinting of East/West includes two songs that were not on the original CD issue and are never-before released!

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MEDIA

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